RIM shares jump as analyst decides it isn't as dead as he thought

Analyst Peter Misek has told investors he thinks RIM could yet pull out of its nosedive, predicting a 20-30 per cent chance of BlackBerry 10 gaining significant market share.

In a note to investors, reported by eWeek, the Jefferies & Co analyst tells clients that operators have been surprisingly impressed with the new BlackBerry OS, and that some operators may decide to back RIM if only to ensure a multiplicity of options remain in place, having discounted any long-term future for Microsoft's Windows Phone as the third ecosystem.

His note apparently triggered a five per cent jump in RIM's share price, though ever-confident public statements from CEO Thorsten Heins may also have played their part. Talking to WiReD the CEO admitted that mistakes had been made, that the management structure has been cut back to speed decision making and that RIM's QNX-based OS has an exciting decade ahead of it following the launch scheduled for January 30.

Last Month Misek was telling us that BlackBerry 10 would be delayed until March 2013, and that RIM's future would be entirely dependent on its ability to licence out the OS to hardware partners. But since then RIM has announced that '10 is on schedule for January, and the company has been showing off what the OS can do to anyone who'll stand still for long enough, leaving good impressions all round.

Devices will be important, and we won't see those until January, but most important is that operator backing doesn't seem to have suffered from RIM's decision to add VoIP to its messaging platform, despite the potential for that to hit operator revenue: which is going to be vital if BlackBerry 10 is going to have any impact at all. ®